It's (usually) more complicated than that

May 12, 2012

Updated This week in The Slacktiverse, May 12/13 2012

The Blogaround

This week Ana Mardoll posted: Deconstruction: When We Like Problematic ArtArtistic analysis isn't about finding The Answer. It's not about making a list of Good Art and Bad Art and then having everyone realign their tastes to match. It's not about coming to an agreement. It's about experiencing different viewpoints and understanding why other people think differently from you

This week Ana Mardoll posted: (Trigger Warning: discussion of rape, rape culture)Twilight: When Rape Plays Matchmaker
And this is the seduction of victim-blaming, the idea that sensible people can agree that Bad Things just happen, like the tides or tsunamis, and there's nothing we can do about them except insist that the potential victims of Bad Things police their every little movement and action in an attempt to avoid the unstoppable Bad Thing.

Kit Whitfield continues her analyses of famous first sentences. This week:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, translated from the Italian by William Weaver.

Storiteller celebrated the first week of bike month with a small but mighty meetup with other bike-minded women, as well as an advocacy action masquerading as a community bike ride. Unfortunately, most of the policymakers weren't there, but it was still a nice ride, as she describes in Bike Month, Week 1: Building Community. With the advent of spring, she's really been looking forward to growing her own food as well. Unfortunately, something has stood in her way - climate change. Although we can't attribute any one set of events to climate change, she talks about how we're already starting to see the effects in our own backyards in Everyone's a NIMBY Now.

Coleslaw writes: Another May, another UMW bake sale, so I began the week Baking for Jesus. The linked-to recipe for Root Beer Float Cookies was actually pretty good. The dramatic ending to the UMC 2012 General Conference is being pretty thoroughly discussed in the Methodist blogosphere, leaving me to think There's a Lesson Here. I have lots of time to read these blogs because Ouch! I injured my foot again. I sum up the rest of the week in A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That.

Speaking of Methodist blog posts, my favorite reaction to the failure of the church to change its policy on marriage equality and inclusion can be found here:

Sample quote, "There comes a time. It’s as simple as that.
1.
There comes a time when a new mind settles over the human family, when almost imperceptibly, people begin to think a new and different thought, making the old thought no longer thinkable and the world a kinder place to live in. One of our hymns - used often in the apartheid days - reminds us that to every person and nation- to all of us -there comes a ‘moment to decide.’ One of its lines is particularly apposite today:

‘New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
they must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.’ "

Last week Ana Mardoll posted: Twilight Themes: Venn Allies Behave Badly
I want this author, and others like him, to be my ally. Really. But I can't consider them that until they stop talking about misogyny in others and start addressing it in their own selves.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted: Twilight: Disney: The Little Mermaid
For me, The Little Mermaid is the story of an Otherkin girl living in a world that is hostile to Otherkin. For me, The Little Mermaid is the story of a feminist girl living in a world that is hostile to feminist ideals. For me, The Little Mermaid is the story of a culture-conscious girl living in a world that mandates insularity. And now I'll walk through the film and explain why I feel these things.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted: Narnia: Susan, Problems of
The Pevensies were “good rulers” who made no plans for the future, lived each day as if they had thousands more to come, and despite coming into their kingdom through the climax of a civil war that had raged a hundred years, saw no need to live as if Narnia was anything other than a peaceful utopia.

Adults who want sex-change surgery or hormone therapy in Argentina will be able to get it as part of their public or private health care plans under a gender rights law approved Wednesday. From Argentina makes sex-change surgery a legal right, The Times-Standard, May 9 2012.

Mike Timonin writes:
Here's an article by Matt Cornell about body image, gynecomastia, and the problems with a binary view of gender, I think it fits in with some of the material which has been presented about genderqueer and such. (Trigger Warning: body shaming is discussed, bullying is discussed).

[Melinda] Gates made a decision that’s likely to change lives all over the world. As she revealed in an exclusive interview with Newsweek, she has decided to make family planning her signature issue and primary public health a priority. “My goal is to get this back on the global agenda,” she says. [Melinda Gates' New Crusade: Investing Billions in Women's Health, Women in the World (The Daily Beast) May 7, 2012]

Things you can do

Any British readers, please consider signing this petition to put Mary Seacole, the heroic Crimean nurse, on the new £10. If this petition were to succeed she would be the first black Briton to feature on our currency, a lack it's high time we remedied, and Seacole - who had to borrow money to get herself out to the Crimea under her own steam, and who nursed both rich and poor, sometimes under fire, and bankrupted herself caring for others - was an amazing person who deserves to be remembered.

From avaaz.org: To Prime Minister David Cameron:
As concerned UK citizens, we call on you to remove Jeremy Hunt from office immediately. The Culture Secretary's collusion with the Murdochs over the BSkyB deal has brought the government into disrepute. We demand the government puts the people’s interests ahead of corporate interests.

Demand The Department Of Justice Investigate Operation Rescue: Operation Rescue, a radical anti-abortion group with known ties to acts of domestic terrorism targeting abortion providers and clinics, is posting on-line private health information of women and girls who had abortions, and the State of Kansas is going right along with it. This needs to stop and those reponsible held accountable.

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.

2 Comments

Correct me if I'm mistaken here, but: "crip". Bad word, right? So how come I've got both my manager and her second (and said second has been a wheelchair user in the past, and one of our coworkers uses a cane) telling me it's fine, go ahead and file the new company with that in its name? M says, maybe it's somebody's name. C says, though not in so many words, maybe it's people with disabilities looking to reclaim the term. This after I explained to both of them what the problem is. And it's manager's call whether a new-company name is appropriate, so I don't have a choice but to file it, but I don't like it.